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A few random thoughts on production techniques... Andy Pollack, a list member, had a list serve on "B2B" or "Business to Business" software, that postulated, I believe correctly, that such software could be the material/software basis for running production and services in a socialist society. It's worth taking a look at this concept. The advent of the semi-conductor in industry along with more sophisticated relay devices that already existed for 20 years added some expansion of productivity to industry. Or alot. For example, before we had computerized milling centers, which can shoot from an engineers desk data that allows a machine to make very complext machined component, there were "NC" or numerically controlled milling machines. Primitive, punch card or tape computers would do the same thing computers do today, at about 1/100th the speed. They had been around since the early 1960s, mostly in the machine tool industry and aerospace. I ran one, I remember it well. As the computers came in in the early 1980s more and more work could be accomplished with few people and greater material output. One production machinist could run two or more machines. It allowed for 'speed up' to greater and greater proportions. The destruction of the US steel industry had nothing to do with computers, semi-conductors (which, btw historically came from radio/vacuum tubes or 'valves' in the UK terminology) but was facilitated by first and foremost, international trade deals that allowed for a greater free flow of investment capital and, trade without tariffs, that made delocaliation (runaway plants) under the pressure of falling profits, a good, and logical choice. The technological innovation that accelerated this also had zero to with fancy tech. It had to do with a 1950s process of processing steel called a "continuous caster" that allowed steel to be finished thermo-chemically in molten form and be poured directly into a rolling machine for processing. When the US completed it's last steel mill in the 1950s the Germans and Japanese were just rebuilding their steel industry and of which had these new casting methods. Both Korea and Taiwan picked up on these as well into the 1960s leaving the US steel industry in the dusty with their older technologies. Capital flowed to where it could get the better return. DW ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: [email protected] Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
